A leak from the main in London Road, where South East Water recently spent £400,000 on a major pipe replacement project, meant four-way traffic lights had to be put in place at the junction with Beehive Road while engineers fixed the problem.

However, at South East Water spokesman said the leak was not in the part of the main that was replaced earlier this year.

Works took place in London Road earlier this year to help prevent future flooding to properties in Milward Gardens, where residents’ homes have been flooded several times in recent years after pipe bursts.

There were delays to traffic on Tuesday evening, however the road was open as normal from 7am yesterday morning.